On Independence Day the 57th flower exhibition was opened on Spivoche Pole (Singing Field). Its theme is “Melody of Ukrainian Fairy Tales.” The project was implemented by designers from public utility companies for city gardening and from Kyivzelenbud Company. The total area of floral compositions is about 2,500 square meters. For creating those compositions designers chose a variety of flowers from the simple annual plants (ageratum, tahetis, begonia, petunia, alternatera, cineraria, and coleus) to perennial and cut flowers which have been grown specifically for this exhibition. Total number of flowers used for creating the composition was nearly 300,000. Svitlana KUZNIETSOVA, senior specialist of landscaping at utility company of Obolon district:
Ms. Kuznietsova, how hard was it to complete this project related to fairy tales?
“I very much wanted an arrangement that would be made not of cut flowers, which are inserted into the soil where they stick as in a vase. Rather, I saw it as a three-dimensional flowerbed. And that’s what we did: the entire bird is made of planted flowers. There is not one cut, i.e., it can stay there for the entire season. Next year I would like to make a permanent floral composition in the Obolon district [in Kyiv]. Reluctant to portray the Firebird in the traditional yellow, I wanted to offer a different view. I decided to use red and pink colors.
“There is also the nuance of proportions: when an adult comes to a flower exhibit, he or she has to feel a little like a child and return to childhood years and the world of fairy tales. So these fairy tale characters have to be bigger than humans: it is necessary to create a different dimension, a different space and perception of the world.”
When you have an idea, do you make a design on paper or on the computer?
“First, I make a drawing by hand and then produce an electronic version. In the course of work the composition is constantly elaborated: some details are added, and other things are specified.”
Is there a fashion for certain topics in floristry?
“Certain possibilities rather than a fashion. Every flower has its own color spectrum, and every plant reacts differently to light. One will wither in the sun, while the other will become more vibrant. All these things need to be taken into consideration. Moreover, if you set the goal of planting a portrait of a person, your work will come to nothing if you don’t know the character of flowers: you may plant A Girl with a Peach only to get An Old woman with Dried Apricots. The reason is that the face seems to wrinkle precisely because of incorrectly selected flowers. This means that the character of flowers and leaves also needs to be borne in mind. For this Firebird I picked flowers with leaves like feathers, and we planted them based on this.”
What trends do you see in floral landscape design in Kyiv?
“There is one trend that is characteristic of the capital city. We have grass lawns here, and we want to plant trees there. But underground utility pipelines or electricity cables make it impossible to do. But there needs to be some vertical structures in this part of the city anyway, because the space requires this complementation. So if we can’t simply plant trees, we can decorate this space by adding a floral sculpture. In other words, this minus for the city can be turned into a big plus. In this way, we can accentuate the city’s greenery in interesting ways.”
